This [man] God raised up the third day and gave him to be openly seen,
Peter is standing in a Roman officer's house in Caesarea. He is speaking to Gentiles about a Jewish Messiah they knew only from a distance. His summary turns on one line. Men killed Jesus; God raised Him and let Him be seen — but only by a small circle.
The verse follows Peter's words about men killing Jesus and hanging Him on a tree. Two opposite acts stand side by side. The second is God's reply to the first.
Here we get the second wonderful truth, that is, God for us. The One whom man refused, God raised up, and put into glory.
Peter had just told this household that they already knew the public facts about Jesus. The resurrection was different. People at the time denied it.
The death of Jesus had been a public spectacle, and everybody knew about it. Only a few had seen His resurrection. Common report denied it, and the religious authorities backed that denial, as we learn from Matthew 28:11-15. So Peter now announced the astonishing news. God had raised the crucified Jesus from the dead. He and his fellow apostles had seen Him themselves, eaten with Him, and received from Him a command about what they were to preach to others.
The word "people" here is not humanity in general. In Peter's speech it means one nation. That limit points to something God was starting.
"Not to all the people" — notice that "the people" here always means the Jewish people only. God was now forming a new people altogether.
The list of those who met the risen Christ is worth reading against the list of those who condemned Him. The two lists do not overlap.
The risen Lord showed Himself to certain of His disciples (John 21:1), but not to any of His enemies. He appeared to men like Peter and John, Thomas and Cleopas. He did not appear to Annas and Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod, or to any of their followers.
The risen Christ ate and drank with His followers. Those meals met a need — but not His own.
He whom they killed on a tree ate and drank with His own after He rose from the dead. He did not need the food. They needed the testimony that He was alive from the dead — a truly risen Man, who had loved His own in the world, and loved them to the utmost.
If this one fact fails, nothing else in the message stands.
The resurrection is what the gospel turns on and what clinches it. If unbelief still holds out against its testimony, what could be clearer? Man hates both the love and the truth of God, and will not be saved at any price.
The resurrection is not only a wonder in itself. Read backwards, it tells you what God thought of the death that came three days earlier.
At the moment of His death Christ accomplished atonement. He bore the sinner's sins, and was made sin so that we might escape its consequences. He sacrificed Himself, and so infinitely glorified God. What was the result? God raised Him up. So I can tell you of a risen, triumphant, victorious Saviour. That is the Saviour I know. He triumphed over sin, Satan, death, the grave, and the power of darkness; and as the risen man He lives before God.
- Man's verdict — men killed Him and hanged Him on a tree. That is where Peter's account starts.
- God's reversal — the One man refused, God raised up and put into glory.
- God's proof — the raising shows that the atoning death satisfied God. The Saviour Peter preaches is alive and victorious.
- God's witnesses — He appeared to a chosen few: His own, not His judges. They ate and drank with Him because they needed the certainty.
- God's new people — "the people" means the Jewish nation. That limit shows God was forming a new people, which is why a Roman household is hearing this at all.
not of all the people, but of witnesses who were chosen before of God, *us* who have eaten and drunk with him after he arose from among [the] dead.
Peter is in the home of Cornelius, a man who is not Jewish, telling him what God did with the Jesus that men had killed. One detail stands out: God did not show the risen Christ to everyone, but only to a few chosen men who ate with Him after He rose.
The word "people" here does not mean everyone. Peter uses it in one narrow sense, and that sense points to something new God was doing.
"The people" here always means the Jewish people only. So the risen Christ appeared "not to all the people" — because God was now forming a new people altogether.
Before the cross, everyone saw Jesus. After it, no enemy did. The reason was mercy, not fear.
If our Lord had publicly appeared to His enemies, it would have meant destruction to them. Instead of confronting them with their evil deeds, to their utter confusion and destruction, He commissioned His disciples to preach the gospel, beginning at Jerusalem, the very city of His murderers.
That silence toward His adversaries is not permanent. One writer names the men on both sides of the line and points to the day when the second group will see Him too.
The risen Lord showed Himself to some of His disciples, but not to any of His enemies. He appeared to men like Peter and John, Thomas and Cleopas, but not to Annas and Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod, or any of their followers. His enemies judged Him unjustly, and He humbly submitted to that judgment. Yet by His own word before the Jewish council (Matthew 26:64), they will still "see the Son of Man" on the day He appears, when He comes with clouds of glory and majesty to judge all evildoers.
The verse says God chose these witnesses. One writer asks what that word can mean once God is the one choosing.
Does not the use of the word here prove its meaning? Used in connection with God, it is impossible to attach any idea to it beyond that of selection or appointment.
The choice was also practical. Proof of a resurrection needs witnesses who knew the man before he died.
There were good and necessary reasons why outsiders could not see or confirm His resurrection. In the main it called for chosen witnesses who knew Him well... How could any reasonable person expect unbelieving Jews or Gentiles to record such a wonder, to His glory and to their own certain condemnation? Yet thousands of unbelievers were brought to believe, and suffered for their faith without flinching.
A ghost story collapses at a shared meal. And the point of those meals was not His hunger.
The One they killed on a tree ate and drank with His own people after He rose from the dead. He did not need the food. They needed the proof that He was alive from the dead — a real, risen Man, who had loved His own who were in the world, and loved them to the very end.
The meals narrow the circle further. They tell us who these witnesses were, and why no one could join them later.
The only people who ate and drank with Jesus after His resurrection were the apostles. Others saw Him, but these were the chosen witnesses of the resurrection... The apostles, then, were to be eyewitnesses of Christ's resurrection. That is an important fact, because it shows the office was temporary in character, and could not be revived in later times.
Peter spoke as a man who was there. From that one fact he drew the heart of the gospel.
There was no doubt about His resurrection; the preacher himself had seen Him, and had eaten and drunk with Him... His death met the claims of God, while His resurrection displayed His absolute victory over death, and sin, and all the power of Satan.
- Chosen. "Chosen by God" can only mean God's own selection and appointment. The witnesses did not volunteer.
- Spared. Mercy kept the risen Christ from His enemies. A public appearance would have destroyed them, so He sent preachers to them instead.
- Certified. He ate and drank, not because He needed food, but because they needed proof. A real Man stood before them, alive.
- Commissioned. The men at those meals were the apostles, and that eyewitness office could never be repeated.
- Sent. A private appearing produced a public message. God showed the risen Christ to a few so that everyone could hear about Him.